Slippery liquid-infused porous surfaces (SLIPS) are an emerging class of bio-inspired soft matter that exhibits unique and robust antifouling behavior. These materials are fabricated by infusion of viscous oils into porous surfaces, yielding interfaces that allow other fluids to slide off (e.g., with sliding angles as low as 2°). This slippery behavior arises from an ability to host and maintain thin films of oil at their surfaces, placing a premium on chemical compatibility between the matrix and the oil and revealing design criteria that can be exploited to manipulate the behaviors of contacting fluids (e.g., to tune sliding angles and velocities or create responsive surfaces that allow control over these and other interfacial behaviors). Surfaces and coatings that exhibit these characteristics have enabled the design of new anti-icing surfaces, slippery containers for the dispensing of commercial liquids and gels, and new liquid-infused interfaces that are resistant to biofouling in complex aqueous, biological, and marine environments.
Aizenberg and co-workers reported the first examples of SLIPS by infusing perfluorinated liquids into nanofibrous Teflon membranes (Wong et al., Nature, 2011, 477: 443-447). Since that report, many different approaches have been used to design substrates, coat surfaces, and functionalize interfaces with combinations of porosity, roughness, and surface chemistry that lead to slippery surfaces when infused with different liquid phases. Recent reports have extended work on SLIPS on planar surfaces to develop approaches to the fabrication of SLIPS on more complex objects. These reports address challenges related to assembly, versatility, and durability that will be needed to integrate this class of liquid-infused materials in practical settings. These examples have, however, emerged only recently. The fabrication of SLIPS on complex surfaces and the development of means to tune, pattern, or manipulate the interfacial properties of these liquid-infused materials remains a challenge.
The present invention addresses the challenges related to the fabrication and functionalization of SLIPS on complex surfaces, and provides a means for tuning interfacial properties and manipulating the behaviors of fluids in contact with this emerging class of soft materials.